Brownie Cookies

This time of year I love to go on my annual Holiday baking spree and bake all kinds of cookies. From the new cookies that I find to my all time favorites. This year my baking spree is a bit different. You see one of my favorite parts of my annual baking spree is having my mom and my friend Beth right there alongside me. Baking, decorating and boxing up goodies for our neighbors and coworkers. This year it is just me and occasionally Andrew who will wander into the kitchen for some taste testing. Now that we have moved to Peoria, Illinois I live 7 hours away from my mom in Columbus, Ohio and 9 hours from Beth who lives in Canton, Ohio. So I get a little sad not having my baking cohorts out here with me. I guess until we find a way to move Ohio closer to Illinois or they decide to join me out here in the River City, I will be baking alone. This is also the first year that we won’t be able to make it back to Columbus, Ohio for Christmas since Andrew is unfortunately on-call that week. My parents and brother’s family will be coming back out to Peoria to join us for Christmas and New Year’s this year, so I am looking forward to that. Now, Beth if we could just get you out here it would be a perfect Christmas! 😉

I am one of those people who go shopping on Black Friday and then not again until the weekend before and the days leading up to Christmas. This year I decided that I should at least try to get a head start on my shopping. Well, instead of finding Christmas gifts for everyone else, I ended up I picked up a new cookbook for myself! 😉 The Southern Living Best Loved Cookies cookbook is like a cookie goldmine.

There are so many mouth-watering cookies in this book I didn’t know where to start. That was until I found the Brownie Cookies recipe. Cookies and brownies in one delicious treat? Does it really get much better than that? These ooey, gooey chocolate “brookies” have crisp edges, tender centers, and a rich fudgy flavor. Serve these babies warm with a glass of cold milk and I bet Santa will leave you everything on your Christmas list! 😉

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spread the nuts onto a baking sheet and place in preheated oven 5-7 minutes until fragrant. Shake the baking sheet halfway through baking so the nuts will toast evenly. Remove nuts from oven and set aside to cool completely. Once cool, chop nuts and set aside.
In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, melt butter, unsweetened chocolate, and 1 1/2 cups chocolate morsels over low heat, stirring constantly; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and espresso powder; set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs, sugar, and vanilla at medium speed until combined. Add flour mixture, beating well. Add chocolate mixture and beat until combined. Stir in remaining 1 1/2 cups chocolate morsels and pecans.
Drop dough by 2 tablespoonfuls, spacing about 2 inches apart on to parchment paper lined baking sheets. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until edges are firm and centers appear cracked, 9-10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through baking. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 3 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

this is my absolute favorite kind of cookie, and i can’t wait until next weekend so i can make them, but i do have a question as i hate nuts! normally i just cut them out of the recipe, but this calls for 2 cups, which seems like a whole lot. should any of the other ingredients be adjusted to account for the loss? or perhaps i could just make up for the lack of nuts by throwing in some chocolate chips…!

Amy,
You can just leave the nuts out and not worry about substituting them with anything else. I made a few without the nuts and they turned out great! Let me know how they turn out for you!

Amy replied: — December 17th, 2011 @ 10:04 am

Just packed up the cookies for a Christmas party tonight and I’m so sad I’ll have to share them! Took your advice and left out the nuts, but given the season I subbed in some broken candy canes and it’s like a chocolate mint bomb in your mouth! So delicious. Will definitely make again (just maybe will make my tablespoons a little less heaving so my cookies turn out as pretty as yours!).

I wish my family could fly back to Columbus during Christmas as well. My grandma usually flies out here instead…she’d much rather be in sunny California than freezing Ohio! These gooey cookies look awesome. x

Amy,
Thanks so much for letting me know how they turned out…I am so glad that you enjoyed them! I bet they would be great with some peanut butter chips, I will have to throw some in next time I make these!

I have to tell you that Peoria is my hometown and I now live near Pittsburgh. I will be making the 9 and a half hour trip back for a couple of short days at Christmas. Your cookies look great! Have a good Christmas!

Stephanie,
You can omit the espresso powder and the cookies will still taste great. The original recipe did not call for espresso powder. I like to add a small amount of instant espresso powder to my brownies, cakes, and cookies because it enhances the chocolate flavors without adding a significant coffee taste. I hope you enjoy them…let me know how they turn out for you!

Oh. My gosh. I can’t even express how much I need one (or two or three) of these right now. I’m serious! They look incredible! And I just realized…I have everything to make them. And they have nuts in them, which means the kids won’t eat them. More for MEEEE!

Is there an email address I can send a photo of our attempt to? There are no words to describe what we have done…

Meryl replied: — July 13th, 2012 @ 4:23 pm

We think we may have gone wrong somewhere in converting the measurements into metric. Any chance you could weigh all the ingredients next time you make them? Apparently we have no idea what a ‘cup’ is.